Tragedy of the seas in RI archipelago

By Roger Michael Johnson and Daniel Rosyid

This is the second of two articles on fisheries.

SURABAYA (JP): An artisanal fishery is characterized by much greater importance being placed on labor rather than on capital, by small, flexible and locally significant operations, and by having a very low impact on the environment.

Boats belong to owner-operators and crew are rewarded with a share of the catch.

The traditional fishing methods employed here are quite compatible with a long-term and sustainable fishery and are not in conflict with marine preservation or ecotourism interests.

Whatever one calls them they consistently have been held in low regard by governments, which regard them as traditional and therefore backward and an obstacle to fishery development. That they have endured and in many cases flourished proves this attitude is wrong.

For Indonesia, artisanal fishing communities are a considerable resource and may offer the only realistic chance of avoiding multiple disasters.

Large capital is not needed; labor saving technological solutions, and high labor-low capital solutions are very viable. Such fisheries can often operate in a cooperative fishing model, using smaller vessels to great effect.

In our survey of artisanal fishing vessels and operations, the people were highly skilled and motivated, but often, lack of information and poverty limited their ability to make correct technological choices.

An example is the decision to install engines in preference to sail is almost universally poor. These fishermen were encouraged to reject sail as being "old fashioned" at a time when both fuel and machinery were at artificially reduced prices. It is not inconceivable that diesel fuel might reach Rp 2000 per liter in a relatively short period.

For a poor fisherman, sail still makes economic sense. Another consequence of the installation of engines is that the working life of wooden boats has been drastically reduced to around 10 to 15 years from well over 30 years.

Neither steel, aluminum or fibre glass are viable alternative materials and the rapidly depleting forest resources make it essential to develop this longer working life.

Those materials are incompatible with the existing physical infrastructures available at the coastal communities. They are also culturally incompatible. Fibre glass requires sufficient level of analytical capability and also much dependant upon imported materials.

Finally a considerable post-industrial revolution in micro electronics is underway. Satellite communications, global positioning and utilizing the Internet for fish sales all have the prospect to considerably empower artisanal fishermen, and are quite compatible with their more "primitive" technology.

The current project at the technology institute, the ITS in Surabaya, aims to develop a range of improved vessels with the capability of exploiting both coastal fisheries and new grounds out to the 200 nautical miles.

The project draws on both local traditional practices and international experience and the requirement is for vessels which will have a long working life, are safe to operate and economical to run. The project thus advocates the use of low resistance hulls with small engine power and the reintroduction of sail.

The problem remains how to get such vessels into the hands of the individual fishermen most likely to operate them effectively and who are in most need of support.

Financial support on a non-capitalist basis is required, for instance through an operation under the Muslim principles of syari'ah banking. Or simply by grants and loans, or by the building and leasing of improved vessels.

Given problems with misappropriation of funds here, utmost care should be taken to ensure the poor fisherman gets a little more security, instead of enhancing the wealth of the already wealthy entrepreneur or official!

The announcement by President Abdurrahman Wahid, that he wanted to reverse the centuries of neglect of the archipelago's seas, was very heartening.

The English scientist Huxley wrote in the 19th Century that fishery controls were pointless because the seas were so prolific that it was inconceivable that man could deplete them.

Recently an East Java fisheries officer told us that all the fishermen in his port were well-off, that all talk of conservation was nonsense and if they did fish their waters out they would simply go to Sulawesi where there were plenty of fish.

Both Huxley and this officer were very, very wrong. Hopefully the understanding of just how wrong they were will not be too late ...

Roger Michael Johnson MA is a marine environmental anthropologist with the department of anthropology and human ecology, University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom, and a visiting scholar at the marine technology postgraduate program of the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya. Dr Daniel Rosyid is a marine technologist and the institute's vice rector for cooperation. (pr_4_its@its.ac.id)